Workers of the World Profiles (G to L)

While most travel blogs focus purely on travel quite a few bloggers pick up work – paid or otherwise – as they go. Others take with them transferable skills such as web development or writing and attempt to carve out permanent travelling lifestyles.

Below we briefly profile over a hundred travellers and expats whose travel blogs inspire and inform us with a first hand insight into their working abroad experiences. Travel bloggers are generally a friendly and helpful lot. Most are happy if they can to answer a few questions on what they have learned, either by email, social media or in the comments section of the relevant articles.

A self proclaimed teaching travel expert, George is a twenty something girl circumnavigating the globe. She has taught English in Germany, India and Japan and writes frequently on the subject on her blog.

Stephen Bugno has been traveling, writing, and teaching English abroad for the better part of ten years. His articles and essays have appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Seattle Times, and Transitions Abroad. In 2013, Stephen teamed up with another traveller he met in Spain and founded a tour company.

Volunteering is a central part of Emma Higgins’ blog. A permanent nomad from the UK, Emma began travel writing on a life changing trip to India but before that she had worked on a dairy farm in Canada and taught English in Barcelona.

Christine Ka’aloa has lived in Hawaii, Los Angeles, St Louis and New York City, where she had a career as an actress and TV shooter/producer of reality shows for over seven years. In 2010, she took gap years to live and teach abroad in South Korea and travel. She has volunteered her time working at film and Asian Awareness festivals and has given a performance workshop in France. Christine helpfully bundles her teaching in Korea posts onto one page including:

Adam Pervez is a serial volunteer and, among many other things, has cleaned dog cages at an abandoned dog shelter, done menial tasks at a nursing home, helped publicise an organisation that turns used bikes into human-powered machines, and built a website for an indigenous Mayan co-op.

A Canadian couple that sold everything in 2009 to travel the world, Dalene and Pete Heck’s field of expertise is house sitting. They have looked after other people’s homes in several countries including Belgium, Ireland and Turkey.

From separate ends of the world John and Andrea Spirov travelled independently until they met in Crete and later married in Australia. Now in their thirties they travel the world together. Andrea has a background in social media and marketing while John is an engineer and musician as well as a writer. Intriguingly Andrea is also a director of a company behind an anti hangover drink.

UK born Emily’s childhood living in Ireland, the Netherlands and Gabon gave her the taste for travelling the world. Her working abroad CV includes teaching English in Korea and volunteering in South Africa, Sudan and Honduras.

Jill is a San Francisco based freelancer who can work wherever there is internet, though sometimes her travels are restricted as an Indonesian national. She either travels alone or accompanied by husband Jack, including the time they volunteered in Ecuador.

John Bardos and his wife owned a successful business in Japan for more than a decade, but in early 2010 they sold or gave away everything including their house and car to live a nomadic travelling lifestyle as long term digital nomads and entrepreneurs. He has taught English and has a successful teaching English site.

Tash is a social worker and traveller. She has taken on a lot of jobs abroad to fund her travels, some of them crappy – literally in some cases. She has held working holiday visas in the USA, housekeeping in a hotel in Nashville, and for two years in London, volunteered in a shelter for girls in Phnom Penh and completed a university placement as a social work intern in Toronto.

Long after quitting her teaching job in favour of a year ski bumming, Kim Kircher still works the slopes. She also writes and has hosted a radio show, and has earned an avalanche blaster’s card, allowing her to fly over the slopes in a helicopter and drop bombs from the open cockpit.

Erica Jordan (aka Kizzle) broke away from a sheltered life in the States after a trip to Nicaragua. She worked as a teaching assistant at an all girl’s college in Tokyo for about a year and a half and returned to the school to teach again in 2012.

Aspiring entrepreneurs and digital nomads, Meg and Tony Rulli began their RTW journey of a lifetime in January 2012. Since then they have housesat and looked after dogs in Koh Samui and worked for food on a Tuscan farm.

Chloe Du Bois was offered a position as a tour manager in Europe for Contiki. Before she got the position she needed to successfully complete a comprehensive assignment and 68 days training around Europe.

American Nomadic traveller Lash has been keeping herself on the road since 1991. She taught English for six years in Japan, has volunteered, with both good and bad results, through WWOOF in Florida and Australia, and worked on the Survivor TV show. Other jobs have included cutting hair on Shanghai and running a bakery in Thailand. At the time of writing Lash intends to start offering small group tours, beginning in Bali.

The tagline to Lauren Fitzpatrick’s blog is ‘working my way around the world.’ Lauren began working abroad in Ireland and has since held 30 jobs in six countries, including bungee trampoline operator and hostel cleaner in Australia, recruiting participants for drug trials in New Zealand, blogging for Busabout, and teaching English in South Korea. Lateral Movements also includes interviews with other working travellers and on studying abroad.

When Robert Schrader moved to Shanghai in 2009 to teach English he set on the road to the location independent lifestyle he enjoys today. From there he landed freelance writing gigs, moved onto making money through his blog and offers teaching abroad coaching sessions.

Stacy left New Zealand aged 21 to travel the world. In the course of her travels she has worked in Australia, au paired and worked as a camp counsellor in the USA, freelanced online and volunteered in Cambodia. Last we heard she was moving to China to teach English.

In early 2010 Sean Ogle quit a job he didn’t like and headed to Thailand. Since then consulting and affiliate marketing, and anything else that seems interesting him, have financed a lifestyle that has included living on a tropical island, running a marathon and climbing a mountain.

If you want to be included on this list please send us your name, blog address (it has to be a blog, not a website), a brief bio and a selection of posts about working or volunteering abroad, to payawaytravels(at)gmail(dot)com.

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About Us

The Working Travellers are Shane Donovan and Deirdre Higgins, who travel the world cheaply and look for ways you can too. More on gap years, career breaks and working abroad can be found via our sites below or from our main site, PAYAway.